Scam wedding couple learned their lines from crib sheets

A FAKE bride and groom who memorised facts about each other on a crib sheet before their bogus wedding were jailed yesterday.

Tatalova and Azzouzi play the happy couple at their sham wedding ceremony [SOUTH BEDS NEWS AGENCY]

Petra Tatalova, a Slovakian events manager, wed balding Moroccan student Zakaria Azzouzi, 24, in a scam which would have allowed him to remain in the UK.

Tatalova, 32, was jailed for 12 months while her “husband” was told he would be deported after his 21-month sentence.

They wed at Barnet register office, north London, in March 2011. This allowed Azzouzi to stay in the UK after his visa expired because his bride was an EU citizen.

The couple got away with it until police arrested their wedding fixer, Moroccan Mourad Nabil, 43, eight months later. The crib sheets were discovered at his home in Borehamwood, Herts.

On the groom’s sheet were ­Tatalova’s date of birth, her ­Scorpio star sign and the fact she was an events manager in London. The bride’s sheet included Azzouzi’s date of birth. It also said the couple had met at a coffee shop in Oxford Street in June 2010 and moved in together that September, St Albans Crown Court heard.

Nabil, who had earlier been convicted of housing benefit fraud, was sentenced to two years in jail

Judge Stephen Gullick said it was clear Nabil had a “Svengali-like malign influence” over Tatalova.

Nabil, who had earlier been convicted of housing benefit fraud, was sentenced to two years in jail.

Prosecutor Laura Blackband said the defendants went to the register office to book a ceremony and answer questions aimed at proving the marriage was genuine. Nabil said he was an interpreter for the groom. The couple convinced the officials and a licence was granted. But the crib sheets later proved the marriage was fake.

Paul Whitehead, of the Home Office’s Criminal and Financial Investigations Team, said: “I hope these convictions demonstrate that our sham marriage investigations do not start and finish with the bride and groom.

“Our main aim is to identify the organisers who profit from – and fuel the demand for – sham marriages, destroy their criminal business and put them behind bars.”